Robin Bailey Biography (1919-1999)



See index for CTFT sketch: Born October 5, 1919, in Hucknall, Nottingham, England; died January 14, 1999. Actor. A veteran of the British theatre,Bailey earned his greatest fame playing the role of cantankerous Uncle Mort in the BBC-1 television series I Didn't Know You Cared in the 1970s. Bailey became an actor against the wishes of his widowed mother, playing in local theater groups until he was taken up by the Theatre Royal, in Nottingham,and from there, by the repertory group in Birmingham. He excelled in comic roles, usually playing sophisticated leads in contemporary pieces as well as insuch classical fare as Shakespeare's Othello, Julius Caesar, A MidsummerNight's Dream, and Love's Labours Lost. He was Henry Higgins in Pygmalion on the London stage in 1951 and in My Fair Lady for anAustralian tour in 1959-60. He also enjoyed a film career that flourished inthe 1950s and 1960s, and appeared on numerous television programs, includingThe $64,000 Question and Upstairs, Downstairs. But it wasn't until he took on the unlikely role of Uncle Mort in I Didn't Know You Cared, a role which required him to "lurch about the set in a filthy pawnshop suit articulating the most uncivilised opinions on the issues of the day" thathe became a household name in England, according to the London Times.Something of an English version of America's Archie Bunker from the long-running television series All in the Family, Uncle Mort could espouse themost unacceptable opinions on matters of race, sex, and politics, and raiselaughter along with the occasional hackles of his audience.

Nationality
English
Gender
Male
Birth Details
October 5, 1919
Hucknall, Nottingham, England

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